After the Senate portion of the debate on Tuesday, NI executive editor Amber Rouse was able to sit down briefly with Aaron Friel, the Senator from CHAS who is making waves with his Senate platform and the For Real Senate coalition. During the debate several Senate candidates mentioned their support of his platform and how they want to get behind his ideas.
Honestly, I think this is one of the more interesting developments this election season. It's awesome that we're getting to the point where aren't so many uncontested seats, and that the Senate is getting tough on the issues.
Friel is a personal friend of mine, and helped manage my Presidential run last year. He was the guy who sent that email to the entire body asking to "blow up his phone" before he went before the City Council to protest the rental ordinance. There's no question that Friel is dedicated to serving the interests of students, and he's articulate, smart, and savvy to boot. Rumor has it that he might be nominated for Speaker of the Senate, and I think he'd be a legendary one.
Below is video of the interview between Aaron and Amber, shot during the intermission part of the debate. With the audio, it is hard to hear what he's saying, so I've tried to summarize some of the bits related directly to his platform.
0:18 Freedom: Maucker Union Policies. Friel has worked in the past to ensure that student political activity on either side of the aisle be treated the same. Maucker Union has since updated policies that make sure when student groups invite political candidates to speak, they are still treated like student organizations and not charged for use of the Union.
0:55 Fairness: Sexual Assault Panel. Friel talks about the issue with the Sexual Assault Panel. Recently, a policy has changed on campus regarding how UNI deals with sexual assault issues. Previously, there was a panel that included students that would hear cases, and the new policy would remove that panel and replace it with a single staff person. Recent NI article covering the details here. Several members of the Faculty Senate have also expressed concern about the policy change.
2:45- Food. Friel talks about policies related to student organizations bringing food on campus. Also speaking from my experience planning Progressive Picnic this August, it is true that Catering , under the guise of reducing liability, has effectively created a monopoly for itself on campus. As such, I think Friel is going after this the right way in asking for more transparency and more competition. It's hard enough running a student org and planning events without trying to jump through all these hoops erected by these policies.
4:35 -Policy suggestions (hard to hear). He wants the DOR to provide a specific list of charges rather than goes into everything and be transparent with what their profit margins are.
In talking to Friel a little more about what he envisions about For Real Senate, he stressed that the coalition is not about his specific policy issues. Rather, For Real Senators simply want to have competitive Senate elections by getting more students to run, and "don't have any overarching goal except getting things done, and the more specific and actionable, the better." Friel went on to say that prospective For Real Senators are asked to identify at least one thing that want to address next year, and that it's also open to write-in candidates.
So far, these Senate candidates have declared their For Real Senate affiliation:
CBA:
Weston Hinton
Weston Hinton
Danielle Massey
CSBS:
Gabriella Ruggiero
CHAS:
Aaron Friel
Abbie Shew
Neill Goltz (write-in)
Natalie Kaufman (write-in)
Personally, I'm really excited about this. It takes momentum to get students involved and to push for change, and I'm impressed by the focus on addressing real issues that affect students right now. If you're in the running for a write-in campaign, this is the type of thing you should pay attention to. I'm curious if more Senators decide to join before the election. It's only five days away!
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